when they reach port, and execute the penalty. [Felipe II--Madrid,
January 11, 1593. Felipe III--Valladolid, December 31, 1604.]


Law XXXIV

We order and command that no person trade or traffic in the kingdoms
or in any part of China, and that no goods be shipped from that
kingdom to the Filipinas Islands on the account of the merchants of
those islands. The Chinese themselves shall convey their goods at
their own account and risk, and sell them there by wholesale. The
governor and captain-general with the council of the city of Manila
shall annually appoint two or three persons, whom they shall deem best
fitted, to appraise the value and worth of the merchandise, and shall
take the goods at wholesale from the Chinese, to whom they shall pay
the price. Then they shall distribute it among all the citizens and
natives of those islands, in accordance with their capital, so that
they may all share in the interest and profit that arises from this
traffic and trade. The persons thus appointed shall keep a book,
in which they shall enter the amount of money invested each time,
the price at which each class of merchandise is valued, among what
persons the merchandise is divided, and the amount that falls to the
share of each. The governor shall take particular pains to ascertain
and discover how the said deputies make use of their commission. He
shall not allow them to be rechosen the following year. He shall
send annually a report, signed by them, of all the aforesaid to
our council, and another to the viceroy of Nueva España. [Felipe
II--Madrid, January 11, 1593.]